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Origins Of The Specious Origins Of The Specious (2009)

by Stewart Kellerman(Favorite Author)

3.8 of 5 Votes: 5

ISBN

1588368564 (ISBN13: 9781588368560)

languge

English

genre

History & Biography

publisher

Random House

review 1: What did Castlewood Library's DeLace think?:"I absolutely loved this book and found it to be entertaining as well as educated. It certainly went a long way in helping me develop a bit of humility about what I thought was "proper" English and the origins of various words and phrases. I love a bit of trivia and I find etymology to be fascinating as well. Basically, I'm a bore but this will hopefully help me be less of one! I'd recommend this to anyone who likes a bit of history as well as enjoying language.It's worth it just to learn the origins of some of our "dirty" words."
review 2: This funny little book is a great read and all about the ways in which language is understood, but more importantly, about the things we THINK we know about English are wrong. The... more author deftly covers things like False Word Histories(Posh does not descend from 'Port Out, Starboard Home'), Linguistic snobbery divorced from historical reality(many word usages we think modern are really ancient, and pronounciations and spellings are often erratic and more ancient than we give credit), Oddities(The Origin of the nickname Ned for Edward... as well as the origin of the phrase nickname actually), and so forth.It was a great read, and a very quick one, and done with humour and enjoyability from some-one who recognizes the fluid growth and shifts in language, and that 'language is a democracy and we all only get one vote'. Though I do agree with her that the slow loss of the specific meanings of the words 'Irony' and 'Unique' are unfortunate. less

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